Every morning, you should do something to start the day off on the right foot. Well every morning I do something that makes me question my sanity. Why oh why does getting in cold water sound like am amazing idea?!?! It doesn’t, it truly doesn’t. Y’all we are going to be bluntly honest in this blog post because this one is amazing for the benefits but you’re going to grow as a person when you do this one. So let’s talk about Ice Baths!!!
Yea Im just gonna get into the warnings now. Im going to be honest and just speak to you about it all. First, it’s cold. It is so freaking cold. Y’all I questioned everything about my life choices when I first started and I regretted starting this the first few times. You feel it in your joints, in your bones, in your soul… everywhere. To start I recommend only doing 2 minutes of time and then growing your time as you go on. The most you should do is 15 minutes. To which sound impossible when you first start but it does get easier as the time goes on. It hurts when you first start but there’s a beauty in it. You grow as a person.
Once you get past the initial shock, you can move to the mental side and will power of it all. Instead of consistently focusing on your pain or discomfort, the focus changes to your breathing. Think about taking deep breaths and just taking your time to breath through it all. Your mental game will push you through the whole struggle. But I’m not gonna lie, if you’re like me, I hate just sitting still, so I will put on some music and listen while waiting out my time. That actually makes the time go faster. This is also another great time to work on your meditation. You will get to a point where maybe you have a little dread before jumping in but once you get in and start, it’s smooth sailing. Your mental strength will take over and you will feel so powerful that you pushed through something like that.
If you are someone that gives up easily and really gives yourself an easy out of not wanting to do something, I highly recommend trying this out and forcing yourself to do 2 minutes for an entire month. Push through it (unless medically you can not) and do the time. You’ll learn the strength to conquer this obstacle.
I will say that Cyclical Vomiting truly has already given me the strength to push through difficult times and this definitely gave me a run for my money to start but honestly after about the 5th times, I was comfortable with the task. I hate to say but chronic illness really prepared me for this struggle. Now I will say there’s a certain level of nausea that I hit, and if it is happening in the morning, I will not actually take an ice bath that morning. The shivers can start an episode and will actually cause tremors to happen long after the episode ends. It’s better to skip a day for Cyclical Vomiting than it is to thrown into a fully episode and a week of tremors afterwards. To which, the tremors freak my family out to see so I do my best to keep them secretive but the start of the tremors are too strong to hide at times. ( also its exhausting) But this aside, ice baths have been a really good addition to my health routine.
Before we get to the benefits, let’s get to showing options that you can do to make your own ice bath!!! This is the type that I personally have https://amzn.to/49rfiEF but you can go on a few different realms. You can do a water trough, old freezer that doesn’t work or any sort of big bin that will fit your body inside. Now if you can’t afford it right now but want to join in the ice bath world, turn your shower on and take a few minutes in the coldest water temp and that will do just as good! We gotta work with the budget! Remember that! No going into debt because we have so much health ambitions. We will figure out how to get those dreams made, but lets pace ourselves!!!
Ok, let’s get into those benefits!!!!
-Reduce Inflammation
-Improve Blood Circulation
-Increase metabolism
-better sleep
-boost immunity
-relive stress
-boost norepinephrine
-mental clarity
-better skin health
-cold tolerance
-promotes the removal of lactic acid from the blood
-better cardiorespiratory function
-quicker recovery
-help muscle spasms
-wound healing
-reduce blood pressure
-pain relief
-relax easier
For one simple 2-15 minutes of your day, you can literally walk away with so many benefits!!! Such an easy quick investment into your health! For myself though, I like to use this for the inflammation reduction, Relive Stress, Reducing blood pressure and pain relief. I like being able to use the ice bath after a hard day of working on the homestead but with how warm it is getting, I have been using it in the morning so I can use less ice to cool down the tub! I figure the over night temps can work with me and then I only have so much to drop the temp down to. So maybe in the winter I can go back to using it after a crazy hard work day but for now, we start the day off wit it. I still have other tools in place for after working outside.
All of the benefits from the Ice bath are really amazing benefits for your health. If you can keep it within your budget, I highly recommend trying to add this to your routine. I recommend at the end of a work day but let’s be real, you gotta add it into the mix that works best for you!!!